


Epilogue

by fireun



Category: Naruto
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-13
Updated: 2010-06-13
Packaged: 2017-10-10 02:37:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/94507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fireun/pseuds/fireun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It started where it had ended, two predators circling each other warily looking for an opportunity if not an opening.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Epilogue

Naruto didn't raise his voice; it rolled low and thick with the temper roiling just beneath the surface. A shouting match would have been preferable, an honest slap of frustration and fury as opposed to this seething, snarling alternative. It had developed into a sort of routine; Naruto demanding to be involved in missions that might end in Sasuke's capture and return and the Hokage's firm denial. It was a tense situation, but neither of them could afford to back down.

*  
While he didn't exactly go AWOL, it was only through a quick decision by the Hokage to retroactively authorize his absence. Naruto had vanished without a word.  
But almost everyone had caught the edge of fierce determination and furious chakra as he had left. His absence was a silence; a bit of background noise everyone had grown so accustomed to hearing that they only noticed when it was gone. While the ambiance didn't exactly relax, the strain moved in a different direction.   
They didn't have to deal with Naruto himself, but now those who knew him wondered just who would come out on top and who they would be burying.

*  
It wasn't a game of cat and mouse, as it lacked the fleeing rodent. They evaded each other without retreating, testing and teasing along the edge of each other's awareness with the feral attentiveness of two predators scoping out the same territory.

Sasuke wrapped himself in borrowed elegance and assumed arrogance, his presence flavored with affected disdain. But he was quick to evade each approach, ghosting away as soon as Naruto's chakra broke over his immediate environment like a wildfire.

He wasn't frightened.

But he hadn't quite worked out a way to lose his persistent pursuit. A nation's ransom in ANBU had failed to snag him…

But Naruto knew him. Or at least knew his ghosts. Sasuke couldn't hide behind a copied smile. Knew he wouldn't be able to discourage this devil on his heels.

So he stopped trying.

*

Naruto came at him with a ferocity that was expected, an echo of all their previous scuffles wrapped into one lunge.

It was the silence that threw Sasuke off. All of the complaints and condemnation Sasuke had expected were absent. Naruto's face was twisted into something close to human anger, but the familiar things were just off enough to remind Sasuke what he was fighting. Lips were pulled up to bare teeth in a silent threat, eyes widened with animal antagonism, not narrowed with human threat. Blood was drawn each time they collided, a scrabbling tangle of claws and blades. Sasuke's eyes twitched to catch every technique…

But Naruto wasn't concerned with learned patterns. His clawing and biting neglected everything they had been taught, strained Sasuke's sharingan and splashed the surrounding foliage with sweat and saliva as each unexpected bit of contact snagged and snarled the opposing fluid movement.

*

It was a lucky blow that sent Naruto to land in a cloud of destroyed greenery and disturbed earth. It was an unexpected reprieve that allowed Sasuke to flee, no matter how distasteful he found the action.

*

Naruto shook his head in an attempt to scare away the confusion and pain impact had inspired. His nostrils flared once, taking in the myriad of smells that surrounded him; musky earth, the sharp clean smell of broken plants, his own sweat, the deer that had rested there earlier in the day…

He licked a bit of blood from his lips and cracked a smile. He could smell Sasuke. Limbs trembling with exhaustion, Naruto stood. He never had been good at little things like taking a break or waiting for help.

*

Sasuke would never admit it, but Naruto had worn him out. It was a convenient excuse, an easy way to brush off his capture by a handful of ANBU. In silence he was able to preserve his pride even as bound, blindfolded and gagged, carried off like some prized trophy.

His attention wasn't on the ANBU around him.

It was on the heated gaze he could feel centering on him, the bit of familiar chakra that brushed against him with the tenderness of a jagged blade. He was defeated, but not by Naruto. Never by Naruto…

He felt Naruto leave, moving ahead, and fought a smile as he caught just how ragged his enemy's chakra had become. Naruto had worn him down, but he had done the same to Naruto.

*

Naruto was waiting at the gates when they dragged Sasuke home.   
Sasuke was hard pressed to ignore the implication of a disgruntled parent catching him out past curfew. Narrowed blue eyes stared at him in a curious mix of defensive and possessive. Sasuke straightened as far as his restraints would allow in response. He had no apology.

And Naruto didn't expect one.

Sasuke expected shouting, accusation…

He was at a bit of a loss in the face of silent recrimination.

 

*

It started where it had ended, two predators circling each other warily looking for an opportunity if not an opening. They took in each other's differences with narrowed eyes, more than half distracted by what they remembered. They looked for patterns to fall into and onto, settling on an aggression that was as much self defense as offense. Naruto didn't notice his upper lip had curled up just so. Sasuke didn't realize he hadn't dared blink. But each noticed the others reflexive defense and interpreted it as offense. Old habits died hard, and reared again in the face of familiar stimuli.  
Too long apart, neither of them wanted to make the first move, to be the one to try and test the other. There was enough difference in Naruto's bearing, in Sasuke's movements, that neither was sure of the other.   
Impulsive, compulsive, Naruto made the first move. He straightened, and if he didn't exactly smile some of the snarl left his face. "I'm hungry. Let's get lunch."   
No one breathed a sigh of relief, not exactly, but as Naruto moved aside to allow Sasuke and his captors turned escort to enter Konoha, white knuckled grips were relaxed, kunai were replaced into holsters, scrolls slipped back into cases and hidden pockets.  
Uchiha Sasuke had returned.

*  
Sasuke bristled the first time he overheard someone refer to him as 'Uzumaki's problem'. Offhand disdain, a neglectful disrespect, the tone of the voices drifting through the open window implied he was some manner of unpleasant stray that someone had to account for.   
It was utterly backwards. Naruto was the stray those sneers should be directed towards. Naturo was the one who should be avoided, looks averted.   
But Sasuke was the one settled in a room that was pretending prettily to be something other than a cell, playing at reading and ignoring the ANBU settled rather obviously nearby. Distrusted, assumed to be rather disturbed, Sasuke enjoyed his long leash courtesy of one Uzumaki Naruto, who was more than willing to vouch for his errant team member's conduct with a snort and something resembling the tortured cousin of a proper smile. Of course Sasuke would behave. And if he didn't, well, Naruto would deal with it.   
Uzumaki's problem.   
Sasuke's displeasure melted into a manic sort of amusement. The world had somersaulted, shifting everything out of place, but Naruto still had his hands in every bit of trouble available. His face dropped to his hands, reading material forgotten as he started to laugh. It was a bitter, rasping sound, and most likely didn't do anything to assure his guard dogs he was the stable pillar of society he pretended to be when Naruto was around.

*

When Naruto was around, those sporadic bits of time between missions and epic adventures involving terrorizing one eating establishment or another with his comrades and companions, when he would flop himself onto the battered sofa, feet dirty and hair mussed. When Naruto would tweak an eyebrow upwards in a gesture picked up from an innocently inquisitive Kakashi as he irreverently tossed his mask onto the nearest flat surface. Naruto, Konoha's reject-turned-ANBU, eyeing his 'problem'.

The little quirks might be borrowed, but the attitude was all Uzumaki Naruto. There was an irrepressible bit of humor, though how the blond managed to find anything funny in their current situation baffled Sasuke. There was a distinct lack of formality.

And a rather pointed bit of territorial ferocity.

*

Sasuke assumed Naruto was determined to protect the village from him.

What he hadn't counted on was Naruto's determination to protect him from the village.

Quiet displeasure and disdain sometimes sublimated to a more tangible bit of threat. The first time a snarling Naruto materialized between Sasuke and his would be tormentors, Sasuke managed not to flinch merely by virtue of familiarity with Naruto's roiling chakra. Naruto looked very much the feral, hair a haphazard flurry of spikes and eyes blazing. There was an unsteady moment when the idiots hesitated to back down, but as soon as Naruto's posture took a more aggressive air, they made do with some disparaging comments and tried to pretend they weren't running. The bit of red that caught the light in Naruto's eyes proved their decision to be a sound one.

Sasuke opened his mouth to utter some bland comment or another, but the words were knocked away by the unfamiliar feel of Naruto's mouth pressing against his.

Sasuke was pretty sure his ANBU guards were scandalized.

The glare Naruto leveled at him before stalking off assured Sasuke that Naruto didn't care.

*

It wasn't too much longer before the ANBU themselves vanished. Sasuke had proven to be a rather boring surveillance subject, prone to doing little more than read, sleep, and train when the mood struck him and Naruto was willing to spar.

Sasuke privately assumed that the ANBU had simply gotten tired of that instant when fighting sublimated into fucking. Naruto had an odd temper and Sasuke a rather abrasive temperament. It made for an interesting study in association.

*

Sasuke was restless. Naruto had turned out to be quite the shinobi, and as a result was often off on one mission or another, leaving his charge to fend for himself. Sasuke would stalk through Konoha like a haunting. The last Uchiha, fallen from grace and carefully avoided by everyone he approached. He took to wandering the old Uchiha compound, a slightly more tangible specter amidst the spiderwebs and rodents that now occupied the once proud structures.

He had spent his entire life trying to be good enough.

He walked barefoot through the rooms still decorated with faded bloodstains and for once didn't flinch.

 

Konoha had moved on. It barely noticed its Uchiha ghosts anymore.

*

Naruto came back from missions smelling like blood, sweat, and a fascinating mix of sand, salt, and pollen; like he had rolled all around the world outside of Konoha just to bring some of it back for his little problem. Naruto's eternally wind mussed hair was perfectly suited to catching every scent, from the mossy bit of ground he had slept on the night before to the pine tree that had dropped a bit of sap down the back of his neck. Sasuke made a point of brushing close to catch those smells and the places they described before Naruto made it to the shower.

Naruto would hold still, expression as carefully neutral as the mask held loosely in one hand, not quite used to a Sasuke that initiated any sort of contact and trying to sort out whether he minded or not.

In the end he never minded. And showers were always delayed.

*

It paused, poised where it had began, two outcasts not quite sure of each other, but awkwardly certain that they didn't want to be alone.

*

It expanded a bit, each overwhelming personality shifting and snaking, looking for an advantage and understanding. Never stopping- always slithering, trying to sort out a way of settling.

*

The mask was cool under his hands, sculpted edges surprisingly smooth, deceptively gentle. He ran a nail along the lines of red paint that failed to accent any emotion beyond impartial, and then feigned that same sort of unimpressed as he flipped the mask on.

It blocked out the almost desperate twist to his smile, leaving his eyes to glitter as he examined himself between the water spots on the mirror.

Naruto sputtered his way through a laugh, wondering how many ANBU spent their time grinning maniacally behind their masks.

*  
It had been an interesting situation; the first time Sasuke had seen the mask. Interesting in the same way trap jutsu and bleeding neat patterns onto light colored rugs managed.

 

Sasuke was there, poised and perfect on the apartment's one concession to extravagant comfort as he studied a scroll, when Naruto came back from his first mission. There was a moment of confusion as Sasuke struggled to match a familiar chakra with unfamiliar visage, and Naruto called out a tired greeting.

The sound echoed weirdly, stopping him in mid-insult. The mask. He had forgotten to remove his mask.

"Naruto?"

His name, framed as a question as Sasuke tested and tasted the atmosphere, standing slowly.

Thankfully slowly. Naruto's nerves, kicked back into action by the look on Sasuke's face, were doing their best to keep him twitching forward, just ahead of the next kunai. Naruto took a deep breath, tried to convince himself Sasuke wasn't a threat.

But Sasuke was never unarmed. Sasuke moved with a predator's grace, eyes narrowed and shifting.

History hung in their air between them as Naruto's fingers flicked towards his kunai and Sasuke's eyes shattered into wary fractals.

It was fantastically backwards, Sasuke easing forward to offer awkward comfort. It was deliciously unsettling, feeling Sasuke's hands near his neck, brushing across the mask, and then slowly removing it. The world settled back into some semblance of sanity as the night air drifted across Naruto's cheeks.

"Congratulations."

Naruto choked on a snort, caught somewhere between surprise and amusement. He still wasn't used to this, this Sasuke who was willing to come close, to touch. Sasuke smelled of soap as he draped an arm over Naruto's shoulders, politely ignoring the way they shook slightly. His breath was warm with tea, earthy and minty.

"When were you going to tell me?"

Naruto's face remembered how to crinkle up in an endearing bit of chagrin, and both men relaxed at the subtle return of normalcy. "Tomorrow?"

They both pretended the tinge of jealous distemper had never hung from Sasuke's words.

*

It got easier. Putting on the mask was like leaving one room and entering another. Naruto no longer struggled with the mindset. It had saturated the mask along with the scent of sweat and blood, old anxiety and past danger. He was gone longer, more often, leaving Sasuke to sit and study. To wait and watch as Naruto's eyes hardened along with the muscles in his already powerful frame.

Sasuke recognized the expression; it had hounded his own face through most of his childhood. It looked viciously out of place on Naruto.

He mentioned it once. Naruto had looked up, noodles dangling out his mouth like a catfish's feelers for a stunned second before they were sent wiggling as Naruto laughed, dismissing Sasuke's concern.

*

Sasuke refused Naruto's attention when the blond came back from missions, exertion and victory staining his clothing with damp splotches. Naruto would snarl, eyes narrowing, and Sasuke would snarl right back. He was Naruto's responsibility, but he was not Naruto's consolation and coping mechanism. Violence hovered close to the surface of Naruto's expression most of the time, lingered at the edge of every gesture.

Sasuke hovered in the corners of the apartment, chakra roiling a warning that Naruto wasn't always wise enough to heed.

 

*

Their first actual fight destroyed the better part of the building Naruto had called home for years. Naruto rolled out of the wreckage snapping and snarling. Sasuke's hand flew through seals, intent on aggression more than preservation, his temper finally pulled taut. They were too evenly matched for their feuding to end easily. Naruto crouched, eyes red and glaring. Sasuke inhaled, preparing…

Déjà vu hung heavy in the dust their fighting had kicked into the air. History gleamed in every mote that flashed in a stray bit of sunlight. Sasuke was the first to back down, shoving his hands in his pockets and turning his back on Naruto.

Naruto blinked, Sasuke's action so out of character it snapped his hold on his temper, forced an unwelcome bit of introspection.

 

*

Naruto glared at his ANBU mask, hating every flawless inch, the way it seemed so unconcerned with the chaos that had replaced Naruto's conviction.

"Come back like a proper ninja or don't bother." Sasuke growled glancing up from his scroll, a welcome voice of short-tempered reason.

Naruto cracked a grin, and tossed a rude gesture Sasuke's way before vanishing.

Sasuke shook his head with a snort. It figured Naruto would sort out a way to wear an ANBU mask at an irreverently rakish angle.

*

 

It ended in a quiet satisfaction; smirks and snarls swirled into a singular sort of contentment.


End file.
